In this Quebec film short directed by Kaia Singh screening on 7June2025 at the Korean Film Festival of Canada in Montreal bi-racial teen Mira (Manna Singh) deals with the death of her Baba (grandfather). Baba’s last words were his desire to go to the water, most likely realizing his impending death and the resulting HindiContinue reading “The Korean Film Festival of Canada: “Moving Water””
Category Archives: film
The 12th Korean Film Festival of Canada: “Variation”
“Variation” is a K-Short directed by Ji-hoon Park screening at the 12th Korean Film Festival of Canada in Montreal 22May-7June2025. “Variation” can be interpreted as an innocuous 24-hour snapshot of a relationship between a young Korean couple reuniting after previously ending their relationship. Alternatively, it may have a deeper meaning. In film multiple interpretations frequentlyContinue reading “The 12th Korean Film Festival of Canada: “Variation””
RKS 2025 Film: “BA”: Ba Ba Black Sheep for the Grim Reaper
Daniel (Lawrence Kao) is down on his luck. In Manadarin “ba” can refer to both father and dad and that he is for his 8-year-old daughter Collette (Kai Cech). Daniel and Collette are living an extremely penurious “living in his car” existence. During this “camping car adventure” Daniel discovers a wooden box in a bagContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “BA”: Ba Ba Black Sheep for the Grim Reaper”
RKS 2025 Documentary: “I Shall Not Hate-A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity”
This Canadian documentary is based on a book of the same name by Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish. Dr. Abuelaish is a Palestinian doctor born of parents bulldozed off their land in Palestine by Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab War. An estimated 500,000-750,000 Palestinians fled to refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan, LebanonContinue reading “RKS 2025 Documentary: “I Shall Not Hate-A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity””
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Betrayal”: Not One but Many
The Canadian documentary “Betrayal”, directed by Lena Macdonald, chronicles the whistleblowing of Cindor Reeves crucial to the war crimes conviction of Liberian President Charles Taylor by the United Nations backed special court for Sierra Leone in 2012. Taylor was convicted of sexual violence, physical violence, abductions, terrorizing civilian populations, forced labour and utilization of childContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Betrayal”: Not One but Many”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Unwelcomed” (Si Vas para Chile)
“Unwelcomed” is yet another migrant crisis examined. During the COVID pandemic some 8 million Venezuelans migrants poured out of their economically and politically failing country. Some 300,000 Venezuelan undocumented migrants are presently in Chile. The journey is perilous fraught with gang robbery, murder and rape but the promised land lures the migrants. But what awaitsContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Unwelcomed” (Si Vas para Chile)”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Life Invisible”: Combatting Superbugs and a Lithium Obsession
Chilean microbiologist Professor Cristina Dorador rings the alarm bell many others have been ringing for decades. The wholesale and indiscriminate use of antibiotics has given those bad microbes it once easily defeated an opportunity to mutate and resist antibiotics killing an estimated five million people a year. We follow Dorador on an expedition to theContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: “Life Invisible”: Combatting Superbugs and a Lithium Obsession”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “La Femme Equi-Libre”: Horsing Around with Mental Health
The short documentary “La Femme Equi-Libre” focuses on the Elm Grove Centre in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island run by Josée Gallant Gordon a graduate social worker. Gordon offers equine therapy to mental health patients and in lieu of tranquilizing patients with enough tranquilizers to kill a horse the horse and therapist playContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “La Femme Equi-Libre”: Horsing Around with Mental Health”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “Becoming Ruby”: In the Footsteps of the Pansy Craze?
Alex Nguyen, a Vietnamese Winnipegger, struggled with his queerness at an early age. His progression into drag queen Ruby Chopstix was fraught with self doubt. Alex became the first resident drag artist of Winnipeg’s The Rainbow Resource Centre’s “Drag Artist in Residence” supporting drag artists to uplift “a beautiful form of queerness and culture” throughContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “Becoming Ruby”: In the Footsteps of the Pansy Craze?”
Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “Crossing the Great Divide” in the United States: Braver Angels
Watching American news in the past few years and speaking with Americans, most recently in California, one senses a polarized nation where a 6Jan21 riot was illustrative of a greater shade of polarization namely extremism. Rioters seen by some as “patriots” and by others as criminal insurrectionists. As to politics and related points of viewContinue reading “Toronto 2025 Hot Docs: Citizen Minutes: “Crossing the Great Divide” in the United States: Braver Angels”
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